Ulster County Bar Association buys original copy of New York Constitution on eBay (updated)

KINGSTON -- The state Constitution -- or at least a copy of it -- is heading home to Ulster County.

The county Bar Association was the sole bidder on an original 1777 copy of the New York Constitution, which seller Stanley Klos said is one of four known to be in existence.

Eric Schneider, the Bar Association president, said the organization intends to have the document displayed at the Ulster County Courthouse on Wall Street in Uptown Kingston.

"We want people to be able to see this document and to know that these inspired people put their lives on the line to create for this," Schneider said.

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The state Constitution was adopted on April 20, 1777, in the Ulster County Courthouse by delegates to the Provincial Congress who fled to Kingston to escape the British. Its words were first read aloud from the steps of that courthouse, which was destroyed five months later when the British burned Kingston.

Klos, president of the Florida-based not-for-profit organization Forgotten Founders, put the rare historical document up for sale on eBay to raise money to buy a broadside copy of the Declaration of Independence, which he said is an even more rare historical document.

Schneider said members of the Ulster County Bar Association read about the eBay auction in a Freeman article on Thursday. "It bugged a few of us that we had this legacy and it was sitting there on eBay," he said.

As luck would have it, he said, the Bar Association and county Magistrates Association was holding its annual meeting the same day the article appeared.

"It was presented to the lawyers and judges, and there was just a groundswell," Schneider said. "By the time the passing of the hat was through, we had a lot of money, and the Bar Association agreed to assume responsibility for the shortfall."

Schneider said one of the members took charge of watching the online auction and, only minutes before it closed, submitted a bid equal to the $6,500 reserve. The bidding closed with no additional bids.

Klos, who knew only the purchaser was a Woodstock man, was thrilled to learn the Bar Association had purchased the document and would put it on public display.